Metaphysical Foundations of Biomedical Ethics

July 20-21, 2009

Two-day Course organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Biomedical Ontology.

The leading philosophical approaches to personal identity provide very different accounts of what we are essentially, when we come into existence, when we go out of existence, how we persist across time, and what matters in our survival. This workshop will examine the implications of different theories of personal identity for the bioethical controversies surrounding embryonic stem cell research, abortion, death, organ procurement, informed consent and advance directives.

Suggested Readings

Baker, Lynne. “When Do Persons Begin and End?”

Conee, Earl. “Metaphysics and Morality of Abortion”, Mind, 108: 1999. 619-645.

DeGrazia, David. “Advance Directives, Dementia, And the Someone Else Problem”, Bioethics 13:5 1999

Hershenov, David B. “Organisms, Persons and Bioethics”

Hudson, Hud. "Temporal Parts and Personhood." Philosophical Studies. 93. 1999. 299-316.

Olson, Eric "Was I Ever an Embryo?", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57: 1997. 95-110.

McMahan, Jeff "The Metaphysics of Brain Death," Bioethics, 9: 2, 1995. 91-126.

Parfit, Derek. “Personal Identity.” The Philosophical Review. 80:1. 1971

Shewmon, D. Alan. “Recovery from ‘Brain Death’: A Neurologist’s Apologia.’ Linacre Quarterly, February 1997. 30-96

Shoemaker, David. “Embryos, Souls and the Fourth Dimension” Social Theory and Practice. 31:1. 2005. 51-75.

Faculty

David B. Hershenov is an associate professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo. His research interests are in the metaphysical foundations of bioethics.